Social Media Predictions for 2012

By Amy Fowler on 22 December 2011 @ 2:49 PM.

Tags: social media, social media predictions.

Social media is a fast moving industry, and keeping up with the huge number of launches is difficult for even the most avid social media fan. Knowing which sites to spend your time on, and which sites to just reserve your name on, is important if you want to maximise your social media efforts. Here’s a few of our predictions for 2012, to help you keep your social media strategy as effective as possible.

1. Consumer connections – QR codes, and location based advertising, will become the norm as more and more users get access to smartphones and become familiar with those technologies. Certain parts of Europe already make heavy use of QR codes on billboards, and other countries will most-likely follow.
2. Facebook will hit the Billion – Facebook already has 800 million users, and it will most likely hit one Billion users next year. What that means for users is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly a noteworthy milestone.
3. E-Commerce will get easier – This is a boon for any social media agency. Integration between social media and online shopping will make it easy for users to spend their hard-earned cash. Online gaming companies, such as Valve, have already done a good job of this with their social gaming platforms, but it should hit the mainstream next year.
4. Google+ will be tested – Most experts agree that it’s going to take a very long time for Google+ to surpass Facebook, if that ever happens at all. However, it’s likely that it will see some growth next year, especially if Google put good YouTube integration into the platform.
5. Everyone will have an App – Now that the average consumer is familiar with apps, they expect every company to have one. Expect to see more and more companies rushing to a social media agency to get an app made.
6. Privacy will be redefined – This year saw several privacy “scandals”. Next year, attitudes may change. Users are more aware of privacy issues, so we may see expectations altered, with users either not putting information online, or accepting that anything they do put up could be seen by anyone in the world.
7. Networks will network – There’s already some cross-sharing between networks, with niche sites importing contacts from Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s suite of sites. Over time, sharing between networks may become the norm.
8. Aggregation Will Become a Niche – HootSuite, TweetDeck, and other similar cross-network aggregation tools will become a requirement rather than a luxury.

Social media is still in its infancy, but we can expect to see some big changes over the next year or two. How soon those changes will come is up for debate, but they will happen. The modern consumer is accustomed to being able to share information anytime, anywhere, and they’re also accustomed to being able to find out where their friends are, what they’re up to, and what they thought of the products they’ve consumed. Some may call it over-sharing, but with access to good filtering and aggregation tools, it’s simply a new way of life.

About the Author

This article was written by Amy Fowler of Boom Online Marketing, an online marketing company and social media agency.

Post a Comment